Safe House

Invasions/Evasions

~excuse the dramatic switch to third person it makes more sense in the original manuscript~

As soon as Josh hit the ground, Thomas hit it too. They all did, their stomachs pressed against the damp earth, trying desperately to listen, to see if anything was there. Thomas’s stomach lurched as they sat in silence. How could they possibly plan for this? Sure, they assumed that someone might have already escaped, that some of the equipment might be gone. But why would they make a base here, far away from the simple luxuries like food and electricity that camp had?

            And then, slowly, silently, Josh stood up into a crouch. His back ached as he tried to stand up as much as possible without letting a single part of his body be seen through the tiny sauna window. He took no time to see if anyone was in there-too risky. He had to assume the worst, and plan for it.

            He found it funny, though-they trained you for virtually everything in staff training-homesickness, CPR, even earthquakes, for some strange reason. Yet emergiences like these? They never came up. He guessed that being attacked by terrorists seems so awful, so obscure, a thing you hear about on the news miles away from you, that no one assumes it will ever happen. At least not to them.

            He slowly crept forward, praying that Margret and the kids would follow in the same way. Step by step, Josh walked, his throat tight, his heart pounding. Margret followed behind him, her face red as she tried not to hyperventilate. Then came Alex and Isabel, now walking beside each other, walked in perfect unison, both of them still unsure of exactly what was going on. And then Thomas started to walk, Sophia following behind him, and he was terrified.

            He was almost certain that he would be the one to mess it up, the one to trip or sneeze and cause all of them to be killed. After all, it was his luck, wasn’t it? Thomas tried to stop the tiny tears from welling up in the corners of his eyes, making it hard to see. Nothing was going his way. Nothing ever went his way. He would try his hardest in a class in school-and then get stuck in an awful group for a class project. Do extra chores for his parents-just to have them focus on how his room still wasn’t clean. Finally fall in love with a girl-only to have her die without ever saying goodbye.

            But finally-thank god-it went his way just enough to get them all past the sauna. As he slowly stood up, Thomas tried to silently let out a gasp of relief. It would all be okay. It might be okay. He could only hope it would be okay.

            They were almost there.

            Lark stepped outside for the first time in a week, the air slowly flooding his lungs like it had when the terrorist had broken in. The mere thought of it terrified him as he slowly realized how likely it was to happen again. And there they were, now standing up in the woodshop, trying not to cough into the ancient, sawdust-filled air, acting like sitting ducks for anyone with a gun. He gulped, trying to keep his sword from dragging across the wooden floor, it’s white paint peeling back. He fumbled with it, bringing it upwards so he could almost look menacing. That’s right, he thought, you terrorists better not mess with me. I have an ancient sword that’s really heavy and only good if you’re within two inches of me.

            The rest of them slowly climbed up the ladder, taking in the slightly-fresh air as well. After him came Birch, who was holding the other, slightly smaller sword. She was doing fine with it, and she tried to hide her terror that she had while looking into the woods. Anything-from vicious animal to vicious human-could be out there.

            Then came Juliet, gracefully spinning the jagged butterfly knife around her hand. They had unanimously decided that, due to her already shown off experience, she would be the best at hand-to-hand combat. It made sense-but it didn’t make her any less scared to be going out. After all, down there she had the element of surprise-now she had anything but.